Liberman said the funds to be withheld were not Palestinian money, but rather money the PA owed Israel for giving it advances earlier this year enabling it to pay salaries, and to cover debts it owed for electricity, water and other services to Israeli companies.

“First we will get back what we are owed, and then after four months we will check and see what to do,” Liberman said. Israel paid NIS 900m. to pay PA debts, and advanced it another NIS 700m. to pay salaries, he said.

2. Whoda thought? Israel and Iran both have military bases in Eritrea, according to intelligence reports cited by Haaretz. There’s an unspecified Iranian presence in the southern port city of Assab. And Israel?

This is not the first indication of a covert Israeli military presence in the small African country, but Stratfor’s report is the most detailed to surface to date.

According to Stratfor, Israel has a listening station on the secluded Mt. Amba Sawara, as well as docks in the Dahlak Archipelago . . .

Stratfor’s analysis claims Eretria’s government – one of the world’s harshest regimes – is nurturing relations with the two rival nations in order to maintain its advantage against its larger neighbor Ethiopia, from which it gained independence in 1991, and Djibouti and Yemen.

3. Egyptian judges don’t want to touch the constitutional referendum with a ten foot pole. AP reports most will boycott any role in overseeing this month’s vote:

The move was unlikely to stop the referendum from taking place, but it cast further doubt on the legitimacy of the constitutional drafting process and, ultimately, the document itself.

Israel and the Palestinians

• Israeli and Palestinian representatives will meet in Jordan to resume promote the peace process. According to YNet, King Abdullah was also critical of Egypt for marginalizing Amman during Gaza cease fire talks. I wonder if this is more about King Abdullah boosting his regional stature more than the peace process.

• Over lunch with reporters, Ambassador Michael Oren shared his views on recent developments. The Christian Science Monitor was more intrigued by the ambassador’s take on E1 (a necessary political reprisal), while Bloomberg News focused on Syria and the devil you don’t know:

“There’s the possibility that you’ll have Sunni extremist elements who will try to come to the fore,” Oren said yesterday in Washington. “Our opinion is that any situation would be better than the current situation” in which the Syrian regime has a strategic alliance with Iran and the Lebanese Shiite Muslim terrorist group Hezbollah, he said.

• The Times of Israel looks at the question of whether Palestine is now a “state.” Spoiler alert: It depends . . .

• Legal action trying to re-route the security fence away from Battir and its ancient stone-walled terraces got a boost. According to The Guardian:

The case has been bolstered by a last-minute U-turn by Israel’s nature and parks authority, which called on the court on Tuesday to accept the petition, saying the “special and valuable area” should be protected in the public interest. The authority argued there was no longer an emergency security environment requiring environmental considerations to be cast aside.

There are Jewish connections to Battir too, but since you won’t read about that in The Guardian, see Jonathan Tobin.

And yes, I AM tired and SHOCKED to see, that the PRESS can TIE the IDF’s hands.

What IS ALSO clear, is, that the CNN is the best channel I’ve seen in my life, and that, since many years, i guess. What I saw today on CNN, I can agree to all they say, they are the Angels of G”d my G”d, They are the FORTRESS OF AVALON ALL THAT IS GOOD, those YOUNG TURKS, also Miss AMANPOUR, and the SPORTS critics on CNN who CONDEMN ALL RACISM.

LONG GIVETH. LONG LIVE. Let us also cherish the good sides of John Wayne HIMSELF.

not, NOT of JOE ARPAIO. there, EVRYBUDDY talx like DAT ya know. a been bOURNE in this COUNTRY GODDAMMIT yea heck EVRYBUDDY should be JAMES BOND. YES YES YES !!!

I am the one formerly called here “I will kill Hamas”. I don’t change my nickname out of undecision or even out of fear.

Morsi has to go. If Russia and china want assad to be upheld, it will lead to a simple division of Syria into pro-Assad terroritories and a Rebel-State which is to MAXIMUM 20 percent “ISLAMIST”, and SURELY TO NOT MORE THAN ZERO PERCENT RADICAL-FANATIC !!!!

OR, they sit at ONE table in Syria. (CAN they do that? or can they only kill eachother over sudo-”causes”, which have BEEN FORGOTTEN ALREADY? WHAT do the REBELS WANT, WHO ARE THEY, mostly? JIAHDISTS? then FORGET IT.

ALSO NIGERIA suffers from TERRORIST ATTACKS, yet the average Black Man criticises the NIGERIAN Gov. !!

!!! THIS is OUTRAGEOUS. Putin will NOW CLOSE AND ARREST
ALL NEONAZI GROUPS IN THE ENTIRE RUSSIA.

… But harmless Pussy Rioters who “storm” a church for A SONG,
THEM LEFTIES, they JAIL. CRAZY. MCCAIN’s view of RUSSIA
IS TRUE. Surry, it IS just so. Where PEOPLE YIELD TO VIOLENT
MONSTER NAZIS, and are themselves hiddenly ANTISEMITIC,
they will once then suffer themselves. And sooner than that, already,
and that, at our just Hand.

AGAINST JIHAD, ALL MY PEOPLE !

When I see four americans who all said “jews are spies”, ahaha, I
cannot understand evil, antisemites, racists, neonazis, they ARE crazy
— AND MOST People DO know that, rest assured, all People.
WE HAVE THE UPPER HAND!

- What, turkey an “islamist” state? haha the FLAG yes. pfua. oh come on.
be smart. don’t yield to fanatics. goes to EGYPT. I praise the EXTREMELY
BRAVE ANTI-MORSI PROTESTERS, having in mind this picture of just
two days ago where they were PRESSING against the steel gates, having
been HINDERED by the government troops from demonstrating just
in front of the egyptian presidential palace.

- HITLER-FASCISM RISING IN RUSSIA! NEONAZIS BEATING UP
HOMELESS AND only SEEMINGLY “FOREIGN” PEOPLE on the
VERY STREETS of BIG RUSSIAN CITIES, and the AUTHORITIES
DO:

I can praise the swiss Bundesrat Sommaruga, she has held up the huge
sudo-representative army of evil (the swiss “nationalrat”), who wanted
to further discriminate refugees and foreigners, generally. an OUTRAGE.

–> I want to adress the world hereby.

Don’t talk of world war three, you all. It’s quite stupid. If china and russia
back assad, then, the rebels MUST sit on ONE table with assad, bumm.
IT MUST be. ENFORCE THAT, diplomatically. Rest in next post

The Eritrea report is “funny” as it was Saudi with the nod and wink of the US that supported and paid for the Eritrean war of Independence to nark Ethiopia which at he time was “Marxist” and a Soviet client. Going back further the British took the Sudan off Egypt as punishment for the assassination of Sir Lee Stack in 1920(?) – the contract Sirdar or Commander of the Egyptian Army. To substitute the Egyptian Army for security of and in the Sudan, Britain created the Sudan Defence Force in which the young Captain Wingate cut his teeth and polished his Arabic on a secondment.
Ethiopia under the Emperor Haile Salaisse was pro-Israel.